The Sly Fox Outfoxed
Al Molaison
language
(Next Generation Books Kids, Nov. 25, 2013)
As her name suggests, Mrs. Ima Wordlover loves words. For her, word games are fun. But the words making stories are the best. And she loves the trickster stories. She shares them with her class. And Felix the Fox is her favorite trickster.All cultures have myths and legends. And seemingly in the myths and legends of all cultures, there are trickster stories. In Africa, the trickster may be the tortoise or the hyena. In Native American lore, the trickster is the coyote or the raven. North America has B’rer Rabbit. It shares with Europe the Aesop Fables’ trickster fox. It’s estimated that Japan has over 1500 tales featuring the trickster as fox. . All the world loves a trickster. He is entertaining. He has no rules. His society’s rules mean nothing to him. For the trickster there is no right or wrong. Sometimes he is greedy or childish, or just plain nasty. Yet some tales show him as helpful, even friendly; but almost always, he is clever. He seeks his own way and usually gets it. Though he is not always successful, he is always entertaining and almost always a male.In this story Felix the Fox meets his match.. His plan is clever, but it isn’t successful. The story and its outcome lead to several “moral of the story” lessons.Common Core recognizes the non-fiction format.